Hunt's poll: Oregon still No. 10 as Hokies, Buckeyes fall

Oregon defensive coordinator, after the Ducks’ win over UCLA last weekend, said, “I’m pretty sure we can beat B-Y-E next week.’’ They did.

The Ducks stayed at No. 10 in my poll but should benefit quite a bit from Purdue’s upset of Ohio State on Saturday, with the first BCS standings due out on Sunday. All three of Oregon’s non-conference opponents won this weekend, most notably the Boilermakers.

If the Ducks were playing Purdue this week, coach Chip Kelly would say the Boilermakers are one of the best darned 2-5 teams in the nation, and he’d be right. Suddenly, Oregon’s 38-36 win over Purdue is more than an afterthought in the eyes of pollsters – or at least in the processors of the computers.

The Ducks also watched No. 4 Virginia Tech go down to Georgia Tech as the vaunted Hokies defense couldn’t stop that veerbone option offense thing. It’ll be interesting to see whether the Ducks pass Virginia Tech in the Top 25.

I did nudge Cincinnati past Oregon – most other voters had already done this, but the Bearcats’ win over South Florida convinced me.

At the top, it’s still the top three and everybody else, but it’s getting harder to rank Florida, Alabama and Texas. I really wanted to put all three of them No. 1. The Longhorns deserved it by beating rival Oklahoma, the Gators beat an underrated Arkansas team by a hair, and the Crimson Tide showed its incredible defense again in beating South Carolina.

In the end, I had to ask, OK, which team is the best right now? And I had to go with Alabama. This isn’t a knockdown of Florida for barely beating Arkansas – this is just a nod to Alabama, but the difference between the three is still so small it could easily change again next week.

Iowa busts into the top five – why not? The Hawkeyes haven’t lost, and they’ve won at Penn State and at Wisconsin.